Sunday, January 14, 2007

I was working at my first job when Wonderwall was released in October, 1995.

I don't remember hearing it at the time. I was aware of it and the band, but I was heavily engaged in work and the move to Austin, and it wasn't among the genres of music to which I was listening then.

LIke a great pop song, it has a lovely melody and an interesting lyric that is slightly deeper than, for example, "Freak me baby," and it's very singable.

Around Thanksgiving this year, I came across the great Ryan Adams acoustic cover. (There are two, and one is FAR superior to the more common one.) That got me searching for additional covers. Now I have covers by:

and many live versions by Oasis. In all, I have 14 versions of the song, including 3 mashups.

It is a truly great pop song. It holds up well no matter who is singing it.

My favorite is the the Ryan Adams cover that ends with an impromptu Oasis impression. The Cat Power version is haunting, and, like Ben Harper's cover of In Your Eyes, it shows her to better advantage than her own music.

The worst is the Weezer cover because it's a send-up rather than a cover.